Anyone living in Southern California during late October 2003 was witness to several weeks of intense wildfires, including the largest single fire to hit the region in historical times. This latter fire was one of three that were burning simultaneously in San Diego County. Most highways into and out of town closed as flames consumed hundreds of thousands of acres of brush, forests and suburban neighborhoods. Over a dozen people died in the flames as wood and stucco homes fed the conflagration and aluminum RVs melted into freeform ingots.

The above are the facts of what happened. Why the fires spread to the extent that they did, though, is another matter altogether, subject to debate and accusations. Lack of sufficient local firefighting resources, perfect dry and windy "fire weather," the origins of the fires in remote and inaccessible parts of the county, all played a role in the rapid and broad spread of the flames. For me, the principle area of interest in the debate centers on the decades of fire suppression that led to the buildup of unburned fuel that worsened the situation. Fire is a natural process, and denying that fact helped lead to the human catastrophe.

Granted, plant and animal life suffered severe losses, and at least one endangered species in the Cuyamaca Mountains may have seen its end. However, the fires were not a total natural catastrophe. The land needed to burn, to regenerate. Already many burned areas are resprouting with the winter rains. The land may still look blackened, but there's green mixed in with the black.

My Fire Works project looks at some of the human and natural consequences of the fires, and over time will look at the recovery, particularly in the parks and backcountry. Patience and optimism about basic natural processes will eventually allow these areas to cycle through their stages of regeneration. Those less optimistic, however, may see that only solution to fire prevention as the developing and paving of all the remaining backcountry areas, and in this disagreement lies a microcosm of the larger debate on the extant to which humans should control and manage the world around them.

But even granted the final solution of completely developing and paving the land to prevent fire, the seeming protection would prove illusory. People learned: given the right conditions, Winnebagos melt; asphalt burns.